As California burns, I still fear Zombies.
Apocalyptic Los Angeles
Since last week, there’s been a myriad of fires around Southern California that burn through day and night producing a dark and reddish tint throughout Los Angeles. To me, California fires always remind me of a “Zombie Apocalypse”. Probably because when I was a kid I watched the movie “Night of the Comet”. Where a comet ended all life on earth except that of two “Valley girls” that had to survive the streets of L.A. amongst Zombies. The scenes were set in the desolate maze-like streets of downtown Los Angeles. The city scenes in the movie were all shot in a reddish/orange hue, giving it that “Apocalyptic feel”.
Since I was a kid, there has been one type of nightmare that haunts me to this day.( I just turned 30 this year) Zombies!
Yeah. I’ve been plague by Zombie nightmares all my life. Not on a daily basis, but occasionally I will have these dreams. They always consist of me running for my life, being chased by swarms of these god-forsaken creatures of the damned. Although in theory, it’s relatively easy for one to avoid getting killed by Zombies. Since they’re re-animated corpses that have a very limited limb dexterity. But we are talking about nightmares. So in my dreams, I always have issues running. At times my legs feel like they were filled with lead, slowing me to a point of crawl. Then there’s always that asshole Zombie that bites either my leg or arm. Forcing me to either join them or blow my brains out with a shotgun. I always chose the latter.
Anyways…. So I had this horrible nightmare last night. Zombies of course. That led me to wake up and look out my window. L.A. was till smokey and red around 6 am from the california wildfires. I got dressed and walked to the Gym for my daily run. The streets were emptied and filled with smoke with ashes snowing down. The buses very few and far in between. No vendors nor religious fanatics yelling in the corners. No Zombies. I said to myself: “If these fuckers come out right now, at least I have on my running shoes”.
So what is it about these creatures that we fear? The true story of the Zombie is mixed up with the Hollywood version of the brain-eating Zombie to the working-slave Zombie of Haiti.
Of course we know that Hollywood has it wrong. Let’s entertain the idea that some gas was able to re-animate corpses and make them rise from their graves and feed on human flesh. OK fine. The still does not explain how in our “civilized” society we perform autopsies before burial and these things still manage to have motor skills. How do these shell-of-a-human beings have the motor skills to walk? Let alone attack? such a blatant disregard to logic. I still love Zombie films though.
So what about Haiti and it’s slave Zombies?
Haiti is largely a Roman-Catholic country. Most Haitians recognize Voodoo and it’s powers and tend to shy away from that particular religion. Western Society mostly assumes Voodoo is bad and used to kill or bewitch someone, forcing them to do something they normally would not do.
Although Catholicism and Christianity reign, Voodoo is still practiced. One of the most fascinating things that I’ve read about voodoo involves the process of making a Zombie. Not the type of Zombie the western world knows, but a different type. A worker Zombie.
How is it possible to create a zombie? It’s not at all logical. The dead cannot be brought back to life by a simple prayer and some spells. Well….again. This is not the Hollywood Zombie.
In Voodoo, you do not randomly chose a recently deceased and bring them back to life for your own benefit (or someone else’s for that matter). No, in Voodoo the Zombie is chosen beforehand and never really killed. Here is where it gets controversial.
Dr. Wade Davis, famous for writing the book “The Serpent and the Rainbow” about the Zombies of Haiti, meticulously documented and catalog the process used to create Zombies by the Haitian Voodoo priests/priestess. In his research he was able to obtain some samples of the ingredients that go into the Zombie powder. Upon analyses, it was discovered that one of the ingredients was the chemical Tetrodotoxin. Which is found mainly on Puffer fish. Tetrodotoxin has the ability to paralyze a person to a point where medical instruments cannot detect heartbeats nor movement.
This has been proven by cases of Puffer fish poisoning mainly in Japan and one famously cataloged in San Diego California in the early 1990s. John Zamora lives in San Diego and is one of the rare victims of Puffer fish poisoning here in the United States. Mr. Zamora had ingested some dried Puffer fish that was illegally sent to him and within seconds was feeling the toxic Tetrodotoxin take effect.
Once rushed by ambulance to the E.R, the medical equipment barely could detect a heartbeat. Mr. Zamora described this ordeal as being paralyzed and fully conscious, but unable to talk, move or even blink. The effects of the Tetrodotoxin poison were much like that of a characteristic of a Haitian Zombie.
So, it is believed that a Voodoo practitioner can poison their victim, have them be declared clinically dead and with the cover of darkness, unearth the body late in the night and wake them up from their “sleep”. using sporadic poisoning to keep the victim in between reality and a somber state of mind in order to create Zombies.
Sounds much like Sci-fi. Maybe so. But let’s take into consideration Clairvius Narcisse.
Clairvius Narcisse was a Haitian man that had died in 1962 and was pronounced dead in a Haitian hospital. Death records were filed and preparations were made. The mortician examined the body, wrote a report and sealed the coffin himself. Since Mr. Narcisse’s family was extremely poor, they were not able to encrypt the tomb right after the burial. A few weeks after the burial, is when they managed to have enough money to make a crypt for Clairvius.
In 1964, Clairvius Narcisse’s Bokor (sorcerer) had died of natural causes. Clairvius had claimed that he was on of a few other Zombies that were a victim of the sorcerer forced to work on the sugar cane fields. It is believed that after the Bokor’s death, the daily dosages of poison stopped. Helping Clairvius and others regain health and come back to their senses.
It’s documented that Clairvius Narcisse walked casually into a hospital complaining about a hernia. The Doctor that saw him, wrote down in his report in 1964 that the patient complained of a hernia and that he was a Zombie.
Upon Clairvius’ release from the hospital, he made his way back to his village. Where family members recognized him.
Clairvius Narcisse. Found coherent after being buried alive and the death of his captor.
We will never really be sure what or who was Clairvius Narcisse. Since DNA testing was not available back in the early 80s when Clairvuis died. We cannot really tell if Clairvius was indeed related to his family members as he and they claimed.
We cannot prove nor disprove the zombification process of a Haitian sorcerer since very little is known (or told). We do know that Tetrodotoxin is a very strong neurotoxin that can paralyze a person. Rendering them lifeless before death. It’s not a far stretch in imagination to think of a situation where a Zombie can be made using this process.
As the california wildfires consume countless acres and I sit here in my downtown loft, looking out my window as I type, I can’t help but stare off into the hazy red sun and be reminded of hordes of Zombies clumsily making their way up the streets. If they are, what should I do? run? find a Machete and a Shotgun and hack and shoot my way through?
Zombie kit: Machete, Shield and a Shotgun
oh paranoia….
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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I enjoyed your tale quite a bit. Then again, I have an unusual story to tell you. When I was a kid about 8 years old (very much into monster movies back in the 60’s and 70’s), I was growing up in a fishing village in Puerto Rico (only 50 miles away from Doninican Republic). My uncle owned a Marina and we learned to make boats, I also learned to steer the boats at that age, and we used to take tourists to Santo Domingo or Marlin fishing, whichever they wanted.
The thing is that one day my uncle took some tourists to S.D. and since they were going to be there a long time we went exploring towards the northwest of the island. He decided to campout there so we went inland, little did we know we were but a few miles from the Haiti border.
Sometime during the night we were woken up by chanting and screaming and the sounds of thumping. We decided to look. It was the scariest thing I had seen to that date. There were people around this apparent dead person and the one guy whom was all painted up was the one doing the chanting, there were several others doing the screaming and contorting, sort of like a dance, they were all dressed in white, candles all over the place and what appeared as a dead animal towards the head of the body. Sometime during this I was holding on to my uncle so hard he had to pry my hands away. The old man then placed something in a bowl and they stirred it and gave it to the dead person. Maybe five to ten minutes later the person started moving. Then he got up, I almost screamed, and so did my uncle. Then just as this guy started talking, the old man blew some powder stuff unto the man, then they waited and it was all over. They grabbed him by the arm spoke to him and he just followed.
As soon as they were all gone we ran to our campsite grabbed what we could see and made for the boat, which was pretty far off. We never told anyone about it for fear of it happening to us. We still took tourists to S.D. but we never talked about what we saw. Years later I started having nightmares, and the darnedest thing about it was that I could of written the serpent and the rainbow because the only thing different in my nightmare was that there was no military coup but an inquisition of the sorts. When I did get to see the movie (by chance), I almost passed out, went into shock of some kind I guess it was like reliving what I dreamt and experienced. I do know that zombies do not harm people in any way shape or form. Not unless forced to. And that is a fact. Anyone that thinks different is welcome to visit the coffee farms or sugar cane farms in Dominican Republic or Haiti. Where you can still find some in one or another hidden place. They work for food, a highly profitable deal, since they don’t eat much. Yes I later revisited again with my uncle, and yes that is what I learned.
MindEcdysiast,
Thanks for sharing this amazing story.
I’m sure as a child, one would be scared of something like what you saw. For the practitioners, that is just a normal ritual in their beliefs.
It sounds very much like the scene in “The Serpent and the Rainbow” like you mentioned.
I’m sure many people have tried the “zombification” process in Haiti; most likely their victims have died.
Thanks for sharing this with me and the rest of the GhostTheory readers!
OMG!! You mean to tell me that there are other people who have seen
(will admit to watching) “Night of The Comet” and “The Serpent and The Rainbow”?!?! I thought I was the only one [laughing].
That aside, I found your piece quite interesting, Javier (I also suffer from the occasional nightmare in which I try to run but can’t because my legs just won’t move … makes me feel like I’m trying to run while up to my neck in water), and your tale, MindEcdysiast, was just downright creepy-spooky.
I’m sleeping with the lights on when I go to bed.
Hahaha, yea night of the comet is a cheesy movie. As a kid, I remember liking it. Still do
Thanks for the comments.
I am 27 and I have zombie nightmares, glad to know I’m not the only one. My boyfriend has some oriential swords in his house and I’ve said once or twice he should sharpen them in case of zombie attack, the really bad thing is I’m not joking. I have a metal pole under my bed at my house ‘just in case’ and nothing at his and although is doesn’t stop me sleeping or anything it does worry me.
The worst thing is I don’t watch zombie films, never have in fact it’s a fear I’ve always had I have watched shaun of the dead BUT I didn’t see them as convincing zombies so I was fine with it. I have seen trailers for modern films like 28 days/weeks and they gave me nightmares for a few weeks.
I’m strange indeed but I’m glad I’m not the only one even if I’ve thought about it a bit more lol
Lynn,
It’s funny. I usually have some form of a weapon around my bed as well.
I guess the thing I hate about these nightmares is the fact that no matter what, the zombies keep coming in through the doors and windows.
Too bad there has not been any well made zombie movies recently.
I still think to this day that Tom Savini’s remake of Romero’s classic ‘Night of the living dead’ is the best zombie flick out there.
Any good zombie dream (or naked dream) deserves a quick google. According to dreammoods.com, your zombie nightmares are more closely related to self-esteem than the inevitable coming of flesh-eating, reanimated cadavers. “To see or dream that you are a zombie, suggests that you are physically and/or emotionally detached from people and situations that are currently surrounding you. You are feeling out of touch. Alternatively, it may indicate that you are feeling dead inside and are simply going through the motions of daily living”
BriB,
Thanks for the note.
I’m sure the dreams do stem from some self-esteem issues I had growing up. Then again, there is the fact that I saw “Return of the living dead” when I was a young kid and my aunt scared the shit out of us while leaving the theater in East L.A. by pretending that there were actual zombies chasing us down the streets….
btw, check these out:
http://www.coloroverload.com/30-frighteningly-fantastic-zombie-t-shirts/
I heard a story in church when I was younger about a preacher from africa that had been filmed and documented as being dead. Then after days of prayer and mourning he suddently woke up again telling stories of being in heaven and traveling to hell and stuff. This is interesting as it might be a possible explanation.
gabrielconstantine,
Thanks for the comment and story.
“Zombifications” have always interested me. The Clairvius Narcisse case is one of my favorites.
-Javier
Night of the Comet and ShockWaves are 2 great films
I used to sleep with weapons near my bed due to the fact my neighborhood was rife with zombies.Come to think of it they may of been junkies…
Man I had problems with zombie dreams its like im plagued with the zombie dream flu.I had this one epic dream that 2 of my friends and I were in this random school with the all the doors boarded up.We had to smash a window open to get out of the school and wouldnt you know it we were chased by zombies!!!! The dream went on FOREVER.Then it ended with my friend bitten my other friend eaten and I with a broken leg helpless on the ground…….Thats why I dont watch any zombie movies anymore………..MAN I CANT WAIT TILL RESIDENT EVIL AFTERLIFE COMES OUT!!!